Details: The University of Minnesota’s Advanced Research & Diagnostic Laboratory, which carries out clinical medical research on a contract basis and stores specimens in high-tech freezers, is set to sign a lease for a 16,774-square-foot space at the Minnesota Supercomputer Building. The building at 1200 Washington Av. S. was constructed in 1948 as a bottling distribution warehouse and was purchased and rehabbed in the 1980s by the university to house its then-new supercomputer center. At the time, city officials hoped it would kick-start a high-tech corridor along Washington Avenue, but those ambitions never panned out. The U eventually moved its supercomputers out of the facility and sold it to a private investment group, Supercomputer LLC, in 2006.

Now it’s coming back as a tenant after agreeing on an eight-year lease for worth $2.25 million, according to U of M documents. Included in the deal will be building improvements worth $1.2 million, of which the landlord will pay $500,000.

The new space will allow the lab to consolidate its 80 specimen freezers, now spread out at various campus sites, into one location, with room to expand to as many as 160 freezers.

The lease deal is set to be voted on at Friday’s University of Minnesota Board of Regents meeting.

Don Jacobson is a freelance writer in St. Paul. He can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.